Fade To Black
by LaceyLivesInLaLaLand
Summary: ;-; jack mercer x oc, potential to become a ficlet, see notes ;-; Jack Mercer's 'final moments'.. Chloe Greene's last chance to finally tell him how she feels.. Angel, Bobby and Jeremiah's emotions at realizing that their brother just might die.. Jack's internal struggle and his mother's stern words.. Will Jack survive? And what will be the outcome of Chloe's revelation to him?
1. Chapter 1

**I just have a loooot of feelings about the way things happened in the movie Four Brothers.. And there are very few Jack x Oc stories on here.. This one is weird in that it's not JUST a Jack x OC fic right now.. It's brothers x Jack and Jack x Oc and yes, it's kind of angsty and morbid and not pretty at all... But if people want to see more, I'm sort of writing a follow up chapter now, possibly?**

 **I tried getting everyone as IC as I could. Sorry if I failed miserably. If you want this to keep going, let me know.. Otherwise, it's just a really morbid cliffhanger.. But either way, I got out all my feels ( and yes, my love for Garrett Hedlund / wishing I could've inserted myself into that movie in quite a few different places just for the guy) and it's out there..**

* * *

Everything just sort of froze when the shot echoed through out the silence. Even if she tried, Chloe never would get the sound out of her head… Or the sight as she looked up from the laundry she'd been folding in her mom's laundry room to watch as Jack stumbled, then fell, then hit the snow, staining it red with his blood. She screamed and without thinking, she burst out the back door of her mother's house, running to the spot where he'd fallen, sinking down beside his three adopted brothers, hands shaky, tears already flooding her eyes, making it difficult to see.

"We gotta try and stop the blood." she muttered the words brokenly and Angel looked at her, taking hold of her hands. "Chloe, you need to get ya ass back in that house. Let us deal with this, girl.. Ain't shit you need to see."

"Fuck you, Mercer…. He was my…" Chloe couldn't even get the sentence out properly, Bobby cut in and said quietly, "Best friend.. We know.. But getting upset ain't gonna help us save him." as he took the scarf she held out to him, applying as much pressure as he could to the bullet wound, trying to keep his brother awake and talking. Chloe realized that his breaths were getting weaker and weaker by the second.. She knew this might be her last chance to tell him how she really felt, how she'd always felt about him and why Michigan was the first place she ran to again this time when her entire world imploded around her.

She'd hoped she'd get more time to do this, to pursue her lifelong crush on Jack Mercer properly.. But since they'd all been on the same block again, her because of a divorce and the loss of a child and Jack because of the horrible thing done to Evelyn, the entire plan Chloe sort of devised had been one ill timed fuck up after another. So she was in literally the last few minutes.. She knew she had to make them count, that she could only tell him how she felt and at least then she'd have no regrets.. She leaned down, her face closer to his, she grabbed hold of his hand, he gave her hand the best squeeze he could muster as he asked quietly, "W-why you cryin, baby girl? It's just... A scratch...I'm gonna.." the words getting weaker with each one spoken, the blood gushing onto the pale purple scarf Bobby pressed to his bullet wound faster and faster with each fevered beating of his slowly stopping heart.. It might not have looked or seemed like it, but.. Jack Mercer was giving death the fight of his life… He had so many things he'd left undone or unsaid, the biggest of those things being his feelings for the blonde haired and green eyed beauty staring into his eyes currently, sobbing hysterically. He started to cough.

Chloe cried harder but she finally managed to get control of the tears. "Jack, damn it, you can't… You have to stay.. Please?"

Angel fixed eyes on the two. Bobby nodded, urged her to keep talking, keep forcing Jack to respond while Jeremiah got E911 on the phone and tried to get an ambulance en route to the Mercer house even though he knew it was a stab in the dark at best.. Chloe took a deep breath and Bobby urged quietly, "If you got anything you want to say to him, Chloe, you need to say it.." as he tried to fight back his own tears, tried to be the strong and stoic asshole he was known for being.. But he couldn't because this was his baby brother laying there in the snow, dangerously close to bleeding out.

"Jack, please… Don't go.. Don't you dare leave me." Chloe begged.. Her head settled on his chest for a moment, his grip on her hand.. It tightened just a little, but she told herself she was just imagining it. His heart was still beating, waaay too fast, the world was fading and coming back and Jack was torn between hearing the soft mewl of his mother Evelyn's voice and the tearful begging of the voice of the g irl he'd always sort of loved.. He didn't know which to listen to, which path to choose.. Evelyn was telling her son softly, "She's talkin to you, Jacky.. Listen to her.. Don't you give up and take the weak way out just because you think you'll see me again sooner.. I don't want that for you. I want all my boys alive and I want them strong and I want them happy."

Jack blinked, his eyes weren't focusing well, it was taking more of an effort to do it. Just as he felt himself starting to get much weaker, the life literally leaking out of him and onto the snow, two things happened… One, the ambulance rushed to a stop in front of the house… Two.. Chloe leaned in and her soft lips brushed his cheek and the stubble of a beginning 5 o' clock shadow, and she whispered into his ear quietly, "I love you, Jack Mercer.. I always have and I always will.. I came back here because Momma told me you were back and I…. I hoped I'd finally get my shit together… So I could tell you that. But it looks like I'm too late as usual…" as she started to sob again. Bobby and Chloe both had to be pulled away.. Angel got Bobby away, got him into the back of the ambulance with their brother and Jeremiah got Chloe back across the road, got her sitting down in a chair at her mother's faded old white wooden kitchen table.

"If you want to come to the hospital with me and Angel…"

"I can't… I'll… There was so much blood… It didn't look good…" the words came hollow. Jeremiah ducked out the door and called out to Angel, "Your girl Sophia at home?"

"I think."

"Get her to come over and sit with Chloe."

Angel got his girlfriend to go in and sit with Chloe and before leaving, he stopped in the doorway and said calmly, "I'll call.. Let you know what happens." as he tried to keep himself from breaking down too… All three of them knew that tonight could very well be the night Jack died.. The ride to the hospital was silent and when they got there, Bobby was standing in the parking lot, being soaked by the snow and rain mixture, smoking a cigarette and swearing about the shitheads working in this so called fine establishment.

"They're gonna do surgery, give him transfusions." Bobby finally managed to tell his brothers, before breaking down and coming damn close to crying for the second time in a month.. The three of them hugged each other in the parking lot, praying to whatever and whoever might be up there listening as they waited on news of how the surgery was going, if the transfusions and surgery were going to fix their kid brother.

And upstairs, on the operating table, Jack Mercer was internally having the fight of his life because he'd decided, thanks to his mother's stern words, no less, that he wanted to live.. That he wasn't going to just die like some little bitch, without at least putting up one hell of a fight.

The anesthesia started to kick in once they'd gotten him stable, gotten most of the bleeding stopped and his world began to fade out…


	2. Chapter 2

**I just have a loooot of feelings about the way things happened in the movie Four Brothers.. And there are very few Jack x Oc stories on here.. This one is weird in that it's not JUST a Jack x OC fic right now.. It's brothers x Jack and Jack x Oc and yes, it's kind of angsty and morbid and not pretty at all... But if people want to see more, I'm sort of writing a follow up chapter now, possibly?**

 **I tried getting everyone as IC as I could. Sorry if I failed miserably. If you want this to keep going, let me know.. Otherwise, it's just a really morbid cliffhanger.. But either way, I got out all my feels ( and yes, my love for Garrett Hedlund / wishing I could've inserted myself into that movie in quite a few different places just for the guy) and it's out there..**

* * *

The double doors leading into the emergency surgery area burst open and Bobby's head snapped up as did Angel's and Jeremiah's. They shared a look and watched the doctor walking, getting closer and closer.. It was almost a quarter until midnight.. They'd been doing surgery on Jack for almost 4 hours now and the brothers were starting to get very worried that Jack might not pull through.. They'd surely have finished patching him up by now, right?

The doctor walked past them, over to a family sitting in the corner.. Bobby had spoken to the mother earlier.. Teenage boy, shot up in a driveby. It happened a lot on their side of the tracks.. Bobby watched as the woman screamed and cried and hit her knees on the waiting room floor. The doctors had to sedate her and the entire time, he found himself trying to imagine just how the hell he was supposed to be so tough and rough around the edges when he knew that the doctors telling him Jack was gone was going to finish breaking him.

Angel tore his eyes off the situation, stood and said quietly, "I'ma go get coffee, text Sofi and make sure Chloe's okay, she ain't still in shock." as he hurried away from the screaming and sobbing mother as fast as his legs would carry him. Halfway down the hall, he broke down. He punched the cinderblock wall he was standing closest to and he hurriedly shoved his hand into his eyes, looking around.

Jeremiah sniffled. Unlike his brothers, he couldn't hold it back.. First their mother's death, now Jack might be leaving them too? And the guilt, man.. The guilt he felt because of how certain aspects played out… It was eating him alive and he almost opened his mouth several times, owned up to things that he knew about that might have possibly gotten their mother murdered and now, Jack because Bobby had to take on the entire god damn organized crime family in Michigan… 'But you're the one to blame, Jeremiah.. Not Bobby's vendetta. Not your momma being in the wrong place at the wrong time.. This falls on you.' his mind taunted him and the tears started and didn't stop.

Bobby broke.. He couldn't stop the first tear as it trailed slowly down his cheek no more than he could stop the last one that fell before the doctors made their way out once more, finding two of the three brothers in the waiting room.

"We removed the bullet.. He's weak and he lost a lot of blood.. While we were performing surgery.." the doctor saw the two men tensing and he said quietly, "Your brother slipped into a coma.. But his vitals are strong and he's still showing brain activity.. So this could just be his body's way of healing."

"But he ain't dead, right?"

"No sir, he's not dead.. We're moving him to a recovery room in the head trauma ward for now, so he can be monitored until he wakes up.. But if he doesn't wake up soon…" The doctor stopped again as the men all looked at him, tense and stubborn.

He turned and walked away abruptly after telling them when visiting hours started for the Trauma patients. Angel came back an hour later and he said quietly, "Sofi's bringin her here. Said she's okay, just not sayin much.. She's worried."

"Jacky's in a coma.. The doctors are sayin his vitals and shit are good, but… If he don't wake up.." Bobby filled his brother in as Angel asked, "So can we see 'im?"

"Next visiting hour is at 6 am." Bobby said quietly, taking a few deep breaths as he looked at his brothers and said quietly, "Mom woulda wanted us to go down to the chapel."

The three men filed onto the elevator and took it down to the chapel, praying for their brother's life because right now, he really couldn't do anything but try fighting for it internally.. And as Jack was wheeled out of the surgery room and into post op recovery in the Trauma ward, fighting for his very life is exactly what he was doing.

He stood in the middle of a white hallway, looking around, lost and confused.. Everything was immaculate, cold and sterile.. But then he heard the soft lilt of his moms voice and the song she used to sing to him on nights when his nightmares got so fucking bad he'd scream out and she'd come running to hold him, to comfort him. He pushed on the first door he found and he saw himself, cuddled up against Evelyn, one of his first nights under her roof.. She was singing and stroking his hair and he was starting to drift off.

"The choice is yours, Jack." her soft voice caressed his ears as he smelled the familiar smell of Evelyn's perfume and felt as if he were being embraced. "Take your time… But don't take too long, okay? Look behind the doors, remember.. I think once you have, and you've seen the few surprises behind one or two, Jack.. You'll know what Mom wants you to do."

And like that, the lights went out and she was gone again, leaving him alone again.


	3. Chapter 3

**I just have a loooot of feelings about the way things happened in the movie Four Brothers.. And there are very few Jack x Oc stories on here.. This one is weird in that it's not JUST a Jack x OC fic right now.. It's brothers x Jack and Jack x Oc and yes, it's kind of angsty and morbid and not pretty at all... But if people want to see more, I'm sort of writing a follow up chapter now, possibly?**

 **I tried getting everyone as IC as I could. Sorry if I failed miserably. If you want this to keep going, let me know.. Otherwise, it's just a really morbid cliffhanger.. But either way, I got out all my feels ( and yes, my love for Garrett Hedlund / wishing I could've inserted myself into that movie in quite a few different places just for the guy) and it's out there..**

* * *

Sofi found Angel, hugging him. She'd been crying too and she knew how upset her lovers brothers were. She nodded in the direction of a lingering awkwardly Chloe and whispered quietly, "I think she needs to see someone while we're here. Hasn't said a word for almost 3 hours. She started to fall asleep, woke herself up screaming."

Angel's eyes fixed on the blonde and he nodded to his brother Bobby. Bobby walked over and asked Chloe quietly, "You gonna be okay?"

"I'm.. Look, I'm trying okay? I just watched the man I've always loved get shot? I've never… I haven't seen anyone be shot before… the fact that it as Jack only makes it twice as bad." as she hugged herself a little. Bobby pulled the girl into a hug because really, growing up, Chloe had been an unofficial 'sister' to the Mercer boys.. The annoying baby sister, he mused to himself.. But she'd _always been closer_ to Jack.

So she was taking this just as hard as the rest of them were. "You okay, Chloe?" Bobby asked, looking into dazed brown eyes with concern. Chloe managed to nod and then said quietly, "I just keep seeing it. Every single time I close my eyes. I'm not… Too late, am I?" as she stiffened all over, waiting for the answer she dreaded hearing. Bobby explained the situation to her, Jeremiah butting in to add, "Knowing Jack, he'll wake up when he's ready."

"I hope so.. I just… I wish I'd said everything I did sooner.. Maybe that night after the funeral when we were standing outside smoking. I was close then.. Just chickened out." Chloe admitted, Angel giving a nod and then saying with a smirk, "You know he probably heard it all. Probably gonna want to have a real long talk with you when he's awake and copacetic again." as Chloe bit her lower lip.

She hadn't thought about it, really, the impact of what she admitted when she thought that was it, she'd never be able to tell him again. So knowing now that he might very well live, that he could wake up at any moment, well…

She now had to worry about whether her admitting her true and hidden feelings were going to make things awkward, ruin a lifelong friendship.. Or whether things would get infinitely better for both of them.

She went silent, mostly praying that he'd wake up, that he'd be okay, that he'd come back to her… And in the little dimly lit room just up the hallway from where the group of six sat in the waiting room, Jack was wandering around in his own mind, reliving old memories, trying to pull himself out of his own head, trying to wake up and come back.

He pushed open one of the 'doors' and he stood there, watching quietly.. This wasn't a memory.. _He was there, he looked older somehow… He was tickling a little boy with bright blonde hair that stuck up all over until the little boy couldn't stop laughing. Bobby walked in, tossing him a beer, flopping onto the couch, turning on the television set.. When Jack focused harder, he realized that the living room he was in with the little boy was the living room of the house next door.. The house Chloe lived in._

 _A little girl ran in, diving into the space between Bobby and Jack and the little boy. "Daddy! Daddy! I gonna be a fairy in our play." which made Bobby chuckle, look at Jack and Jack watched all this transpiring as 'he' told the little girl, "A fairy, huh?" as he pulled the little girl into his lap with the little boy._

 _Some kind of music was playing in the kitchen and Bobby called out, "What's cookin good in there, sis?" as Jack gave his brother a look and Chloe came to the doorway, leaned in it, still wearing the outfit she wore to teach dance classes after her kindergarten classes at the local elementary finished for the day. She shot Bobby a playful glare and then told Jack, "Baby? Can you come in the kitchen reallll quick?"_

 _"Bet you twenty dollars, Jacky… She's knocked up again."_

 _"Hey, asshole! That is my wife." Jack joked, going red in the face as Bobby shrugged and called out with a rowdy laugh, "And the whole damn street knows it, Jacky.."_

Jack shut the door, a little shocked, a happy grin on his face and a mind full of questions.. Almost on cue, he heard his mother's voice again.. "That may or may not happen, Jack.. Nothing in life is definite.. But I know how much you two always cared about each other.. And if you stick around… Somebody's gotta take care of my Bobby too… you boys can take care of each other… Like you're supposed to."

"Mom, I… I'm just so tired. I'm alone and nothin in my career has gone how I wanted… That girl I was dating, Kara, she walked out when the record label dropped our band.." Jack was finally letting it all go, finally telling his mother what had been eating at him since just before he got the call from Bobby and had to rush back to Michigan.

"I know, sweetheart.. But maybe things had to fall apart.. So they could come together, hmm?" Evelyn's form appeared, she hugged her son again and then she was gone.. Again.. Jack wiped at his eyes and the 'room' his mind had him trapped in for the duration went dark.

"She said that whole thing I saw might happen.. She didn't say it would…" Jack's internal musings were cut into when he thought back to his being shot, Chloe saying everything she had to him… How it ate at him that he might not be able to say it back.. How he might not ever get a chance to know what could be.

"Now if I could just wake up, damn it…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, so two weeks have passed and Jack's been in the coma. I should have written filler and stuff for it, but this is my first time writing a coma type scenario and I wasn't quite sure how to approach it.. Plus, I wanted to get to the good parts. Now Jack is awake.. But will Jack and Chloe get together? How will her words from the day he was shot affect them now that he's awake?**

 **This is gonna branch out into beyond the movie.. It's going to be mostly Jack x OC, but mostly happy stuff.. So this is kind of what Jack's doing while the brothers are getting revenge for their mother's death. :)**

* * *

She let them all go in for the first two visitations with Jack.. She just couldn't have handled it, seeing him lying there, hooked to the machines, torn between life and death. She'd sobbed until she was dry heaving the day before and the day before that. Jack had been in this coma of his for almost 2 weeks but the doctors were certain he was showing small signs of improvement.. They still worried though, that the longer he stayed in the coma, the less likely it was that he'd come back or that he'd come back without adverse affect to his body and his brain. When she'd heard that, she'd just sort of shut down, went numb.. So this was it.. She finally told him how she'd always felt and now she was most likely going to lose him.

She'd gotten Sofi and Angel to take her home when Bobby finally pulled her to the side and told her that she needed to get some sleep. That he knew she'd been working night shifts all week and then spending all day that she should have been sleeping sitting there with them. She'd tried to argue but then Bobby pulled rank and told her that if she didn't go on her own, he and Jeremiah were going to carry her out and Angel was going to sit there and make sure she slept. "Alright, fine." Chloe grumbled as she took a few deep breaths. Sofi walked over and Bobby said quietly, "If there's any change, Chloe, we'll call ya. I promise."

"Even if I'm sleeping?"

"Even if you're sleeping." Angel answered, giving the girl they all considered a kid sister growing up a hug as he said quietly, "He's gonna wake up."

"I know, I mean.. I hope he does.. The doctors saying all that earlier.." Chloe muttered as Bobby fluffed her hair, earning him a glare as she fixed her eyes on him and in a firm tone said "Sleep.. All three of you. If you go upstairs and ask Norma, she'll find you guys blankets and pillows, maybe even one of those family rooms to take a nap in."

"You sleep too, kid." Jeremiah called out as Chloe and Sofi walked down the hallway. As soon as she was on the elevator, Bobby spoke up and said quietly, "Always knew she had it bad for Jacky, wondered why they never got together.."

"Same." Angel remarked as he looked at the clock and spoke up seconds later to point out, "She ain't the only one nervous as hell though.. The doctors telling us all that earlier, if he's gonna pull out of this he's gotta wake up sooner rather than later.." as Jeremiah added, "I know. And one of the doctors admitted that he should be healin up right now.. Not laying there in a coma. Said the surgery went off without a hitch."

"Sometimes the human body just needs a break, Jeremiah." Bobby explained, thinking about the few things Jack had told him about how downhill his life had been going before their mother died and he came home.

"Sometimes, yeah, but he needs to hurry up and wake his ass up. I can't handle losin a brother and our moms." Angel spoke up quietly, standing and pointing out, "Visitation just started." as they all stood and started towards the Trauma ward, silent and solemn faced. "When we get done visitin Jack, we need to go check out that lead we got."

"Bobby, man, we need to give it a rest for right now." Jeremiah argued, causing Bobby and Angel to share a look as Bobby asked, "There somethin you're not tellin us, Jerry? Because it's kinda funny, all that shit about Mom's insurance.."

"Yeah." Angel echoed, stepping closer to his brother as Jeremiah started to pour everything out, essentially telling them most everything they needed to know to tie up loose ends and finish this, get their revenge against their mothers killer. "But I swear on my life.. Nothin I did was why Moms got shot." Jeremiah insisted as he finished, both of his brothers glaring at him angrily.

They made their way into the hallway Jack's room was on only to hear loud swearing and see a bedpan fly out into the hallway, from Jack's room. The doctor came to get them and then explained that he'd woken up, he wanted a cigarette and to get up and when they tried to stop him from doing that very thing, he'd gotten angry.

From behind them, Jack spoke up and said calmly, "Because I feel fine, damn it." as he gave the doctor a supremely annoyed look, his eyes scanning his brothers and searching. Angel smirked and teased his brother, "Lookin for somebody, Jacky?"

"Chloe.. I just.." Jack went silent.

"She'll be back.. I had to force her to go home, go her ass to sleep, Jacky boy. She's been here every single day and night and when she ain't here with us, she's here on the clock but sittin with ya every free minute she gets."

"She workin tonight?"

"Actually, she is." Angel answered, remembering that she'd mentioned having to work nights yet again tonight. Bobby nodded and Jack said quietly, "Don't tell her I'm awake.. I wanna surprise her."

"She's gon be pissed."

"So? I wanna do this, okay?" Jack grumbled, glaring at his brothers.. Apparently, they were now going to give him hell about his feelings for Chloe. To his surprise, they agreed and went along with it. And finally, the doctor got Jack back into his room, Bobby making him get right back into bed as the doctor began telling them when Jack would be clear to go home.

A week and a half.

"Fucking seriously? I'm fine, okay?"

"You just woke up from a two week coma, sir, you need to be observed.. To make sure there are no adverse side effects." the doctor explained as patiently as possible. Bobby gave his brother a firm glare and then said calmly, "He'll be a good boy." fluffing Jack's hair as Jack grumbled about not having freedom or his guitar or his cigarettes for a week and a half.

After talking to Jack for the rest of the visiting hour, Bobby and his brothers went back out into the waiting room and after a few minutes, Jeremiah spoke up and said quietly, "If we're gonna make a move, we better start planning."

"Oh so you're gonna help us?"

"She was my mother too, Angel."

"Yeah, well, look what the hell you were tryin to do." Angel grumbled as Bobby cleared his throat and said calmly, "Let's finish this.. At least if Jack is in here recovering, we're not worried about him.. He shouldn't have been in on it with us anyway, he's the youngest. We never shoulda let him talk us into letting him help."

"Moms would have beaten our asses." Jeremiah admitted quietly as the brothers stood and made their way out of the hospital.. And back across town, Chloe took a long hot shower and she went to lie down, drifting off to sleep…


	5. Chapter 4 CONT'D

**Okay, so two weeks have passed and Jack's been in the coma. This chapter is a continuation of the previous one. Jack and Chloe kinda have a few hot moments in here so yay! Also more brother insanity. Get used to it, they're a close family, haha. I hope to God they're all pretty IC.. Angel and Bobby aren't hard to write, it's Jack and Jeremiah that are a bit of a challenge for me.**

 **This is gonna branch out into beyond the movie.. It's going to be mostly Jack x OC, but mostly happy stuff.. So this is kind of what Jack's doing while the brothers are getting revenge for their mother's death. :)**

* * *

CONTINUED

The lights were off in Jack's room when Chloe pushed the door quietly after doing her first round of the night. She made her way to the bed quietly and carefully, sitting down on the very edge, her fingers finding his hair and slowly winding through it as she thought he continued to sleep on.. She felt his arm moving, going around her waist, she felt herself being pulled down, pressed against him.

She started to shriek but his index finger from his free hand found her lips and he laughed softly in the dark.

"Bobby swore he'd call me when you woke up, dammit." Chloe muttered, frowning a little. Jack's voice was raspy when he spoke from lack of actual use in almost two weeks, but he mumbled against her ear, "I told him not to.. I wanted to surprise you."

"You certainly did that." Chloe answered quietly, realizing then that the way he was holding her was, well.. It wasn't how you'd hold or hug someone you only considered your friend. His free hand raised, it slid through her bangs, tucking them behind her ear as he looked up into her eyes and then said quietly, "About what you said the day I got shot…"

"Yeah?" she mumbled as she tried to determine whether this was another dream of hers or if it was actually happening. She was happy he was alive and relieved and she wanted more than anything for it to be true.

"Did you mean it?" he asked quietly, his breath held as he waited on an answer, prayed to God he hadn't misheard her or misunderstood the meaning in her words. That held breath was released when she mumbled softly, "I meant every single word of it. I have loved you since we were probably 15.."

Jack broke into a grin that she couldn't see in the darkness, but he pulled her down into bed beside him completely with Chloe rolling over onto her side to be able to look at him.. It was like the few nights she'd climb into his window and they'd talk and listen to music when being at her own house got scary for her.. She trailed her hand over his face, her fingertip drawing slowly across his lips as she mumbled quietly, " You don't have to feel the same.." and was promptly cut off by a kiss that was witnessed by his returning brothers as the overhead light came on and the door to his room was burst open and in they came with their loud banter and their excited arguing back and forth.. Bobby was the one who noticed the 'compromising' position that his baby brother and the girl next door were laying in and he snickered as he nodded to Jack's monitors and wiggling his brows suggested, "Careful jacky boy.. Don't wanna raise that heart rate too much."

"Fuck you, Bobby." Jack grumbled as he pulled Chloe back against him, his fingers tangling in her hair after tugging the braid she wore down. "Ignore them, babe. I think I waited long enough for this to finally fuckin happen and you too." Jack muttered as the monitors started to make low beeping noises.

"Told your ass so." Angel observed as Jeremiah piped in and added, "Young love though."

"Yeah.. Before we know it, gonna have a bunch of baby Jacks running around the block.. With their little chicken legs and their wild blonde hair." Bobby joked as he gave a gentle smirk to his baby brother and admitted quietly, "But most of all, I'm just fuckin glad you're alive and well."

"Scared the fuck out of me and Sofi, man. Sofi wanted me to smack you upside the head for runnin out there." Angel muttered, fixing his gaze on his brother as Jeremiah nodded in agreement and then Bobby told Jack, "And you're gonna relax and get well.. We're gonna handle the revenge thing, kid."

"Fuck no. She's my mom too." Jack butted in, raising to sit.

"Lay your ass back down fireball.. We talked it over.. Almost lost ya once.. We're not losing you and Moms." Angel told his brother in a firm voice as he nodded to Chloe and then added, "Focus on getting back real close with your girl.. Leave this to us.. We clear?"

"Fine." Jack grumbled, though he honestly didn't like being left out of the rest of his brothers plans one fucking bit. They caught him up on what they'd learned - leaving out Jeremiah's huge mistake because they just were not discussing it, it had been handled, and when they finished, Jack asked quietly, "So we get this asshole and it's done?"

"Him and the cops he's got on the make. But I think I got a plan.."

"God help us all." Jack mumbled as he gave a laugh and then hugged his brothers as they were leaving. Chloe had to get back out on the hospital floor doing another round, and reluctantly, he stopped kissing her and let her go, mumbling against her lips , "Go on and finish your rounds, nurse.. Before I change my mind and pull you back into bed with me."

"I'll come back before I have to change out of my scrubs.. I'll bring food." Chloe muttered against his lips as he smirked into the last kiss for a few hours and muttered, "You know me too well, babe."

"That and I know how shitty this hospital's meals are."


End file.
